The 4-6 Atlanta Falcons will travel to New Orleans to take on the 9-1 Saints in the third of 3 Thanksgiving games. This NFC South matchup comes after these teams had very different weeks. The Saints won their 9th game in a row with a 48-7 drubbing over the defending Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles. This is the third game in a row they scored at least 45 points and they are running away with the division as they are 3 full games ahead of the second place Carolina Panthers. Atlanta suffered their second loss in a row at home to the Dallas Cowboys 22-19. It was the second week in a row they failed to score at least 20 points and they currently sit in third place in the division.
Drew Brees is having arguably the best season of his career and he shined against the Eagles. He finished with a passer rating of 153.2 as he completed 22 of 30 passes for 363 yards 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. His favorite target was Tre-Quan Smith who had 157 yards and a touchdown on 10 receptions. Mark Ingram had a big day running the ball as he gained 103 yards and 2 touchdowns on just 16 carries. As a team they had 533 yards of offense and currently rank first in the league with an average of 37.8 points per game. They dominated defensively too as they intercepted Carson Wentz 3 times and limited the Eagles to just 58 rushing yards. No Eagles receiver caught a pass that gained at least 20 yards. For the season, the Saints defense has allowed their opponents to average 24 points and 373 yards per game.
Matt Ryan finished with a quarterback rating of 67.1 against the Cowboys as he completed 24 of 34 passes for 291 yards 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. His favorite target was Julio Jones who had 6 catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. They averaged 4.4 yards per run as they gained 80 yards on 18 carries. Defensively, they were not able to force a turnover and sacked Dak Prescott twice. They allowed the Cowboys to gain 132 rushing yards on 29 carries which is an average of 4.6 yards per run. On the year, the Falcons defense has allowed their opponents to average 27.6 points and 418.5 yards per game.
New Orleans will have home field advantage are currently 13 point favorites in this contest. They have gone 8-2 against the spread this season including 2-2 at home. Atlanta has gone 3-7 against the spread including 1-3 on the road. These two teams met in week 3 in Atlanta and it was a shoot out with the Saints winning 43-37. The Saints also have all the momentum, as they haven’t lost since week 1. They have averaged 48 points per game in their last 3 while the Falcons have averaged half that amount with 24. This is not good for Atlanta who has the 4th worst ranked defense in the league against the pass.
